Couple wins in court of love

By Alix Wall

Updated
2:18 pm PDT, Friday, June 26, 2015

Abe Gupta rides a horse into the wedding on a horse, per tradition. He and bride Vaishali Bhatnagar got married during a six-day affair, with the traditional Hindu ceremony taking place at San Jose’s Hayes Mansion. less

Abe Gupta rides a horse into the wedding on a horse, per tradition. He and bride Vaishali Bhatnagar got married during a six-day affair, with the traditional Hindu ceremony taking place at San Jose’s Hayes ... more

Photo: Janet Love Photography

Photo: Janet Love Photography

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Abe Gupta rides a horse into the wedding on a horse, per tradition. He and bride Vaishali Bhatnagar got married during a six-day affair, with the traditional Hindu ceremony taking place at San Jose’s Hayes Mansion. less

Abe Gupta rides a horse into the wedding on a horse, per tradition. He and bride Vaishali Bhatnagar got married during a six-day affair, with the traditional Hindu ceremony taking place at San Jose’s Hayes ... more

“I was completely absorbed in this conversation,” he says. “I remember thinking ‘I haven’t felt this alive and engaged in so long.’ ”

For Vaishali, it took a little longer to be sure — their second date.

“This feeling washed over me, that this could be the beginning of everything,” she says. “I already felt so comfortable with him. I had this feeling of ‘wow, this is the real deal.’”

Their connection came as a surprise, since the two attorneys were both certain they would not end up with another lawyer. In fact, during their first, brief exchange at a networking event in August 2013, they jokingly discussed how much they disliked lawyers.

Abe, 32, grew up in Danville. He graduated from Stanford University at 19 years old, and earned his law degree from the University of San Francisco by age 22. As the vice mayor of Dublin, where the couple lives now, he’s the youngest elected official in Alameda County, and the first politician of South Asian descent elected in the San Ramon Valley. The couple also have a law office together, the AV Law Firm, in San Ramon.

“Vaishali gives off this energy that makes me feel alive and very excited,” Abe says. “I’m confident we have this really cool future, even if we don’t know exactly what we’re doing. We’re going in the right direction and doing it together.”

“Abe has a lot of passion for life and puts his all into things, not only professionally but personally,” says Vaishali. “Of course there’s how he graduated from Stanford so young, and became the youngest city council member. But even though he doesn’t love to load the dishwasher, when he does it, he puts his all into that, too.”

Abe proposed in 2014 at a winery in Livermore that he and Vaishali had visited early in their relationship. Their wedding was a six-day affair, with the traditional Hindu ceremony taking place at San Jose’s Hayes Mansion on Feb. 14.

On the Wednesday night before their wedding, the bride had a henna party at her parents’ home. On Thursday night, the couple held a Sangeet (meaning “song”) at the Dublin Community Center so guests could meet informally. Friday night was a family dinner, with the wedding and reception following on Saturday. Abe rode into the wedding ceremony on a horse, as per tradition, but the couple says they were deliberate in choosing which rituals had meaning for them, such as the priest asking for blessings from their deceased ancestors.

On Sunday, the couple dined at the groom’s parents’ house, where Vaishali was welcomed as the new bride, and on Monday the couple joined the bride’s parents for lunch, where the groom was welcomed into the family.

Life for the pair is a bit slower now, since they ran Abe’s re-election campaign at the same time they were planning the wedding.

“That was intense,” Abe says, noting that, one moment “you’re putting up lawn signs and knocking on doors, and then the next, you’re looking at tablecloths.”

But they managed to do both, as well as establish their law office, admitting that neither knows what to do with too much free time.

“What I love and admire most about them is the respect they have for one another,” said Harman Sandhu, a longtime friend of Vaishali’s. “This respect allows them to work so well together as a team.”

That’s something that the couple feels as well. “There’s something about being on a team with someone you’re married to,” Abe says. “There’s that second language where you can communicate without having to open your mouth.” Which may come in especially handy if the pair is ever together in the courtroom.